Break Up the Panthers

UPDATE: Florida ended up eeking out a 7-3 win, with Gary Roberts having his third goal pulled with Nathan "Tim'' Horton getting credited with Florida's seventh goal.

Quote of the night came from Toronto coach Paul Maurice (who has done a pretty good job with the Leafs this year, eh): "They were good. We were horse(rhymes with sit, spit, skit, pit and grit), but they were good.''

ORIGINAL POST -- ORIGINAL POST --

OK, so we have 13 minutes left here in Toronto and the Panthers have put up seven? Are you serious?

Gary Roberts has recorded a hat trick, another solid game here since the Leafs put him and Joe Nieuwendyk out after the 2004-05 lockout. Last year, Niewy had a hat trick here; Gary, if you remember, scored a goal less than a minute into his first game back.

So, as it stands, the Panthers have won two straight games, have scored a total of 13 goals in those wins and realistically, dominated Buffalo and should have at least gotten one point out of that 2-1 loss last week.

Pretty good road trip no?

And the crowd at the Air Canada Center is starting to thin out. After winning three straight, the locals were getting kinda giddy about these Leafs (one Florida exec has been joking that the city has been too busy planning its Cup parade to notice anything else). Yeah, when the Leafs are winning, the people here are nutty.